Re: we need more variation for conffiles

[Atsuhito Kohda <kohda@pm.tokushima-u.ac.jp>]

From: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
Subject: Re: we need more variation for conffiles
Date: 18 Feb 2000 00:00:01 -0600

>         I still think that overridden by default files should *not* be
>  conffiles. Conffiles are files that users have been assured shall
>  *not* be overwritten up upgrade -- so go ahead and make changes.

I can, at last, understand that the above is your fundamental
point of view.

>         So asking the user when you have badly broken a conffile is
>  should not happen bery often. In fact, hardly ever. And then asking
>  and letting the user decide is not asking too much of the user. These
>  are extraordinary circumstances, after all.

I might find the basic difference between you and me.

Perhaps you think mainly of the cases where a conffile is 
broken by accident, but I think mainly of the cases where
a maintainer refines a conffile in a smart way and it needs
to replace the old conffile with the new one in order to
use the refined capability.

>         I am pretty much convinced that replacing a conffile be
>  default is never really the best solution, but I can still be swayed,
>  perhaps by examples. (I would not object if there was a way that dpkg
>  presented the conffile with a different default, but only for a
>  specific version, if so asked by the maintainer of the package (we
>  have to find some way of stating if upgrading from a version older
>  than ...). 

I do not know the concrete example in Debian yet but I know
one in Debian JP ... :)

>         I have not been able to convince myself that such a case
>  exists, no. All the scenarios I could come up with could be solved by
>  a proper preint/postinst. However, in theory, I may grant you that in
>  xome cases it may make sense for the default action to be replace. 

Okay, I see.

Then perhaps my last question;

>         Ok. This is a different kettle of fish, as they say, than what
>  you said before. As long sa you stipulate that these cases occur i
>  exceptional circumstances.

Sorry but I do not know the meaning of the phrase 
"a different kettle of fish", would you please someone
tell me the meaning :)

Thank you for your advice, this is a nice experience
for me.
				   2000.2.19
--
 Debian JP Developer - much more I18N of Debian
 Atsuhito Kohda <kohda@pm.tokushima-u.ac.jp>
 Department of Math., Tokushima Univ.